Seeing the light

In 2017, when Su embroidery was featured at the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale for the first time, she and her sister Yao Huiqin worked with a Chinese contemporary artist in creating 34 embroidery works, including a rendition of a Song Dynasty (960-1279) classical painting with more than 50 stitching styles.

According to Li, many of Suzhou's traditional crafts have been drawing interest on an international scale and have sought to innovate through international collaborations. The annual Zigang Cup jade-carving competition, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, used to draw dozens of overseas entries that displayed a diverse range of aesthetics as well as facilitated cultural exchange and mutual learning.

As well as its cinema release, small-scale screenings of the documentary have also been hosted in major Chinese cities, where the audience can learn even more about these traditional crafts at Q&A sessions with the inheritors themselves.